I'm so sorry...

Peyton has this new thing where if she runs into you or accidently hits you with something, she says "I'm so sorry" in this dramatic southern belle voice. I often fall over laughing when I hear and see this because it is just too cute.

Well last night, all four of us were on the bed. I was holding Campbell and Brad was trying to hold Peyton, but she was bouncing around like mad. We often joke that she has a stash of mountain dew hidden somewhere in the house because the kid is WILD. Anyways, so Peyton was bouncing around trying to body slam anything in her path. She successfully threw herself against the headboard and went flying backwards and landed on top of her baby doll. She immediately hopped up and with THE most dramatic voice said, "I'm so sorry baby, I didn't mean it" and gave her baby doll a hug. Then she threw the baby doll across the room. And by the time the doll bounced off the wall and onto the floor, Peyton was already back to her body slamming already having forgotten the poor doll.

At least she tries to apologize?

Getting so big!

Campbell will be five months old in just a few days and Peyton is talking more and really starting to act like a big girl. They are just growing up too fast for me. Peyton has started to be a little jealous nowadays of her baby sister. She wants to be held more, wants to snuggle with mommy and daddy more (no complaints there!), and wants us to take pictures of her every night. Just too cute. But for the most part, Peyton loves being a big sister and loves entertaining Campbell.

Earlier this month we had a snow/ice storm and we were so fortunate to not lose any power, have lots of junk food on hand, and be able to stay home and enjoy the show (both Brad and I were able to avoid work). This was the second time it has snowed for Campbell, the first being on Christmas day. The girl has seen more snow during her first four months than most Alabama folks see in their lifetime!

Here are some pictures of the girls from this month:

Ready for a new year...

We all have been sick with stomach bugs, colds, and coughs since Decemeber 15th. And wow, we are ready to be healthy again.

Peyton was the first to get the stomach bug and poor thing fought it for six days. Of course we don't get the stomach bug that lasts 24-48 hours, we get the one that last for a week. She was a trooper during her bout, but unfortunately she passed the bug to her little sister. Hey, sharing is caring. I guess? So as Campbell started her round with the stomach bug (six days for her as well), Peyton then caught the nasty cold/cough bug. She really must have gotten into the whole sharing thing because she then passed that bug onto all of us as well. Poor Campbell spiked a fever yesterday and really was not feeling well. During her second visit to the doctors (she went the week before for the stomach bug), we discovered she has lost a pound and she the dreaded "fever virus." I hate that diagnosis because it really is the doctor saying we don't know what it is and there's nothing we can do about it. But oh well. Campbell is feeling a little better today and we are all recovering at home today and tonight as we ring in the new year. Brad and I are exhausted from fighting the colds and coughs ourselves and dealing with two grumpy and sick little ones. Whew!

One of my new years resolutions is to have a healthier family! I will post more later about the baptism, Christmas, Zoolight Safari, and so on. But that will have to do for now.

Teaching momma a lesson...

The previous post describes our very long morning at the doctors and CVS. For some reason, I thought the day would be calm after we got home and I put Peyton down for her nap. Hah, what a joke.

Peyton was up after her nap and doing her usual business of touching everything in the house and making a mess in every room. Since she is so busy I have to remind her to eat and this afternoon I was bribing her to eat a banana. I was in the kitchen looking at my schedule so I could go ahead and set up a day to get my MRI done (migraines) when Peyton came into the kitchen and pointed to her tongue. I thought she was complaining about me making her eat a banana and gave her some water. Then she asked for a napkin to wipe off her mouth. I thought this was a little unusual but Peyton does tend to be dramatic so I brushed that nagging feeling aside. She went back into my bedroom to watch a movie and I went back to my schedule. A few minutes later, that bad feeling came back so I went into the bedroom to check things out. Then I went into my bathroom and saw that she had brushed her teeth and got her toothpaste all over the sink. I cleaned that up and then decided to hide the toothpaste (which is toddler friendly and ok if they swallow it) in my closet so she wouldn't get into it again. Then that's when I discovered what had happened.

I walk in and there is an opened bottle of Unisom on the floor with 5 pills scattered around it. I immediately picked them up and counted them and noticed there were several missing. I also found an empty gel cap that she had squeezed the medicine out of and then spit the cap out. So I knew she had taken at least one pill. I ran over to her, assessed her and she was acting normal. Then I got on the phone with poison control (they are so nice) and they told me to immediately take her to the emergency room since Unisom is a sleeping pill and the dosage was pretty high. My mom came over and picked Campbell up and then Peyton and I rushed to the hospital. Thank goodness we only live miles away from the hospital because if the drive was any longer, I think I would have started to run cars off the road to get them out of my way. I wonder if I could buy some lights and sirens to put on my car, because surely this won't be the last time I find myself rushing to the ER with Peyton. It didn't help that it was 5 in the afternoon and traffic was horrible. During those few minutes, my mind was racing with all of these horrible thoughts and I broke down. Peyton was getting a little quiet so I made her sing some songs.

We got there and after filling out paperwork, we were taken right back. I was so glad we didn't have to wait, but the nurse side of me realized the doctors in the triage ranked our situation as pretty urgent. That scared me. They took us back into the room, laid her down on the stretcher, and hooked her up to a monitor to check heart rate and oxygen levels and they looked great. Several doctors and nurses assessed her and decided to give Peyton charcoal so it could absorb the medicine in the belly before it dissolved.

This was probably the worst moment of my life as a mother. I see some tragic things at work unfortunately since I work with sick and premature babies. But having to hold down my daughter while they forced 4 20cc syringes of charcoal down her throat was the hardest thing I have had to do. Poor Peyton didn't understand what was going on and didn't want to take the medicine, but with some persuasion they were able to successful administer a lot. I had to ask them to stop for a minute to give her a break and because it was just killing me seeing this. At that point, they decided that it was enough charcoal for now and now it was time to play the waiting game.

Peyton became pretty agitated and her face was BRIGHT red as if someone had taken a red marker and colored on her face. But other than that, she did great and responded well to the charcoal. Even the doctors were amazed at how active she was considering she took a sleeping medicine (that just shows you how busy she always is!!). We had to sit there for four hours so they could observe for any adverse reactions to the unisom and finally at 9 we got to go home! Peyton really did so well and I am so proud of her. Playing the waiting game really lets your mind think some awful dark thoughts about what could have happened and I broke down in tears several times. When Peyton saw my tears, she asked if I had a boo boo and needed a kiss. I love that kid so much.

I should have known that putting my medicines on the top shelf in my closet was not going to be safe from Peyton. She can climb anything and everything. I never imagined that she would be able to climb that high and open a childproof (hah) bottle. But I learned my lesson and will most likely have nightmares for a long time about this. It was a very scary experience and I am so thankful everything turned out ok. But sometimes I look at Peyton and tell her that she has to give me a break one day. She keeps us on our toes 24 hours a day!!

So today I will be working on Peyton-proofing the house.

I can't even think of a good title for this one...

Holy. Smokes. I think I just earned the biggest gift ever from Santa Claus. We are talking at least a year of free massages at the nicest spa in Birmingham kind of big gift. It is no longer a question whether or not Peyton will be the death of me; it is now a fact. She is going to kill me.

After suffering from a massive migraine for the past eleven days, I finally decided to pack up the kids and head to the nearest doc-in-a-box. Side note - do you know what DOESN'T help a migraine? A toddler suffering from the terrible twos and a colicky three month old. Just a little FYI. I should have known to give up on the doctors when we pulled into the parking lot and there was one spot left. Determined to get some relief, we went inside, signed in, and sat in the corner farthest away from everyone else. Things started out great and Peyton was behaving so well. Even after 25 minutes of waiting, she was being good and Campbell was sleeping peacefully in her carseat. Finally they called my name and we went back into the tiny nurses station where they take your vital signs. At this point, Peyton decided she wasn't getting enough attention so she screamed. Loud. When she was satisfied that all eyes were on her, she proceeded to dump out her entire bowl of fruit loops onto the floor. Mortified, I started apologizing profusely to the nurse while simultaneously asking where the nearest vacuum cleaner was. The sweet nurse told me not to worry about it and said let's just go ahead and go into the room. 15 minutes later, the doctor finally comes in, we talk, he checks me out, blah, blah, blah.... he decides to give me a bunch of medicines and a shot. I was worried about how Peyton would handle seeing this, but amazingly she was good and repeatedly told the nurse that the needle was sharp and to be careful. Finally we leave and I quietly say my blessings, thankful that Peyton behaved fairly well and that the building was still standing.

Off to CVS we went to get my medicines filled. By this time, it had been a long morning and Peyton was losing her patience. I was hoping the pharmacist would notice that I had a migraine, a hungry baby, and a toddler who was getting irritable and would speed up the filling process. Nope. I swear she decided to take her sweet time so she could sit back and enjoy the show that was about to transpire.

In an attempt to entertain Peyton while waiting, we walked around the store naming all the objects we could. I'm pretty sure Peyton rolled her eyes at my lame game and thought I was an idiot for pretending to not know what a toothbrush was. She was quickly losing interest as we turned into the next aisle.

Then all hell broke loose.

Before I could realize what was happening, Peyton screamed, stuck her right arm out, and took off running. She knocked over EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. ON. THE. SHELF. Down the entire aisle. It happened in slow motion and all I could do was sit there and laugh in disbelief. Instantly, my kid became that kid, the monster kid that moms secretly talk about during gossip sessions.

After finally convincing myself it was in fact not a nightmare, I began the slow process of picking up every item and restocking them. By this time, Campbell was screaming for a bottle and Peyton was casually perusing the next aisle, unattended, as if nothing had just happened. 20 minutes later after all items are back in their place, I grab Peyton and Campbell and walk over to the pharmacy counter asking if my medicines were ready. The pharmacist crossed her arms, told me no, and waited for the next act of Peyton's Show.

Peyton got out of my grip, hopped (literally) over to the candy aisle and demanded a chocolate bar that was the size of her head. I looked at her and said "hell no, you are not getting any sugar." That went over well. She then body slammed herself onto the floor while screaming and flailing her arms and legs. Campbell took this as a cue and started screaming bloody murder herself. I calmly picked up Campbell's carseat, left Peyton screaming in the candy aisle, walked back over to the pharmacy, asked for my medicines, paid, and walked out. I waited by the door as Peyton ran out after realizing that I had left without her, packed up both kids into the car, and sped out of the parking lot.

Minutes later, I walked into the house before even getting the keys out of the door, changed Peyton's diaper and threw her (not literally) into her bed and told her she better sleep for at least three hours. I haven't heard a peep out of her so far.

Happy Halloween 2010!

I didn't invite you...

The other day I was going about my usual business of cleaning the house for the billionth time of the day when I noticed something unusual. A bag of chips sitting on my counter had a hole in it that looked as if it was made with teeth. Tiny teeth. Not like Peyton's teeth when she tries to get into her fourth bag of Cheetos in one day even though I tell her NO. But instead, tiny teeth that kind of resembled mice teeth. In my head alarms were ringing and screaming saying THIS ISN'T GOOD! But surely I wouldn't have mice in my house. No way. All I do is clean. Yes I have a husband, two kids, and two dogs but I do keep my house fairly clean. I texted Brad and told him to pick up some mouse traps on the way home from work, but reassured him (and myself) that we didn't need them and instead I am just being paranoid. That was Thursday.

Saturday morning at 5:45 Campbell decides it's time to eat. I stumbled into the kitchen half asleep, made a bottle in the dark because it's entirely too early to turn on the lights, and as I am about to head back into the bedroom something catches my eye. I look into the kitchen sink and think my mind is playing a game on me because SURELY that isn't a furry little thing sitting there watching me. After a good 15 seconds of standing utterly still and debating on whether or not I should turn on the light, I finally reach over and hit the switch. Lo and behold, there is a MOUSE sitting there so still in my sink looking straight at me. I was too scared to scream bloody murder like my mind was wanting me to, so there we sat and played chicken for at least a minute, seeing who would make the first move. Finally, I manage to call out Brad's name and told him to get in here this instant. He walks in, looks at me and cannot figure out what the hell is going on and why I am frozen with a look of horror on my face. My mouth wasn't working again so I could only point to the monster that was sitting there, daring me to make the first move. After he became aware of what I was staring at, I hauled ass into the bedroom and took refuge for most of the day, letting Brad deal with our unwanted guests.

Not how I wanted to start my weekend.

Saturday afternoon I realized that more than one critter had decided to move in. My husband definitely thinks I am such a girl now after hearing me scream nonstop in the highest pitch ever whenever something moved. Or when I saw a shadow. Or when I thought I found mouse droppings but really it was a piece of lint. In fact, I'm sure we need to get his hearing checked now. I am not going to lie, I was totally that girl that screamed and scrambled onto the nearest table after seeing a tiny mouse. P.S - climbing onto a table is a hard thing to do when having a newborn and a two-year old in your hands. Just FYI.

Brad played whack-a-mole for the majority of the weekend and five little mice have gone to mice heaven so far. We did see one more but that little sucker escaped and hopefully he is realizing that it is time to pack up and move onto greener pastures. Like the back yard. Like now please.

So little mice, I didn't invite you. You have overstayed your welcome. Well, technically you were never welcomed but we won't go there. Find another place to call home! Or else you may become paralyzed by some horrifying, ear piercing, girly screams.